Giovanni Bazzi was born in
Vercelli,
Piedmont, in 1477. His first master was the "archaic"
Martino Spanzotti; he also appears to have been a student of the painter
Giovenone. After acquiring the strong colouring and other distinctive stylistic features of the Lombard school and – though he is not known to have travelled to Milan – somehow absorbing the superficial mannerisms of
Leonardo, he travelled to Siena before 1503, perhaps at the behest of agents of the
Spannocchi family, and began with fresco cycles for
Olivetan monks and a series of small Ovidian ceiling panels and a frieze depicting the career of
Julius Caesar for Sigismondo Chigi at
Palazzo Chigi. through Prayer'' (с. 1502), Chiostro Grande, Abbazia territoriale di Monte Oliveto Maggiore Along with
Pinturicchio, Sodoma was one of the first to practice in Siena the style of the
High Renaissance. His first important works were frescoes in the
Benedictine monastery of
Monte Oliveto Maggiore, on the road from Siena to Rome, illustrating the life of
St Benedict in continuation of the series that
Luca Signorelli had begun in 1498. Sodoma was invited to Rome in 1508 by the celebrated Sienese merchant
Agostino Chigi and was employed there by
Pope Julius II in the
Stanza della Segnatura in the
Vatican. He executed two great compositions and various ornaments and grotesques Before October 1510 he was in Siena, where he painted the exterior of Palazzo Chigi in monochrome
chiaroscuro with scenes from the Bible and from Antiquity, the first such work seen in Siena. His painting at this time began to show distinct Florentine influences, especially of
Fra Bartolommeo. Called again to Rome by Chigi, in the Villa Chigi (now the
Villa Farnesina), working alongside
Baldassarre Peruzzi, Sodoma painted subjects from the life of
Alexander the Great:
Alexander in the Tent of Darius and the
Nuptials of the Conqueror with Roxanne, which some people consider his masterpiece. When
Leo X became pope (1513), Sodoma presented him with a picture of the
Death of Lucretia (or of
Cleopatra, according to some accounts). Leo gave him a large sum of money as a reward and created him a
cavaliere. It is due to the contemporary art historian
Giorgio Vasari that Bazzi's nickname of
Il Sodoma has become conventional. According to Vasari's testimony, Bazzi always surrounded himself with "boys and beardless youths, whom he loved more than was decent", for which reason he acquired the nickname
Il Soddoma. Still, according to Vasari, Bazzi took pride in the nickname and composed stanzas and songs about it. Bazzi returned to Siena and, at a later date, sought work in
Pisa,
Volterra, and
Lucca. From Lucca, he returned to Siena not long before his death on 14 February 1549 (older narratives say 1554). He had supposedly squandered his property and is said, without documentary support, to have died in penury in the great hospital of Siena. One of his pupils is known as
Giomo del Sodoma. ==Work==